Photography; I shoot what I like, and sometimes people like what I shoot. All photos are copyright to Michael C. Lam unless explicitly stated otherwise.
I try not to do single image HDRs, that is, using a single exposure and tone-mapping it for greater detail throughout the scene, but sometimes I can never quite seem to get the processing on an image quite right in colour, and sometimes its an image that I would prefer not to use as a monochrome, so then I tone-map it in an HDR software to bring out that detail that I know is there.
This photo is of the Moravian Church in Queenstown, Guyana. It is more than a hundred years old.
It stands at the junction of Anira Street and New Garden Street, and there are utility posts and wires on two sides of it, I composed this to minimise the effect of those wires.
As things got busy, I got fewer photos, but I was still left with a choice for Week 9, in the end I decided on this one. Nikhil was trying especially hard to get photos of some wall-walkers with the boats in the background, I wasn’t inclined to do the same at the time, but as I walked on the lower section later, this guy passed me and I thought I’d catch a shot of him walking away. As it happens the boats were in nice positions at this point 🙂 Dumb Luck 🙂
Although Mashramani fell in the eight week of the year, I did not necessarily want to use a photograph from that event, fortunately I had gone on a walk with Nikhil around St George’s Cathedral and I had tried out an HDR, although it has some issues, I rather liked the outcome.
I was a mere four feet from the door, but other than standing in mid-air to get the shot, this was my only option. Although I did some correcting to the distortion caused by the Sigma 10-20mm lens (and the close proximity to the subject), I still got some distortion that I couldn’t get rid of.
My aim with this HDR, was to get the doorway, but also to get as much detail on the inside that I could. Nikhil wanted to go and adjust the mat, but I thought that the angle that it was at worked fine for me.
Oh, and as usual, I neglected to lug the tripod with me, so this was handheld.
This week’s Deck Photo is taken from the Children’s Mashramani Parade this year, I previously blogged about that. (If you haven’t checked it out as yet, I think its a good view, the children really did well!)
Although this photograph may not have been the best of that set, there was just something, that “je ne c’est quoi” quality in it that I thought was more appealing to me. It was a beautiful costume, and a lovely young lady showing it off, and her smile lit up her face nicely too.
The costume wasn’t as colourful (you know, the full range of the Guyana flag, plus a few more) as others, but in its simplicity of colours it enhanced the beauty and detail of the design.
After years of trying to avoid the label, I have to accept what I am, and I can say I am proud of the journey and what I have achieved so far with the help of everyone I know, not a single person has ever tried to tell me that my photographs are bad, many said they were good (and worth improving many times), mostly these were family and friends, so they are expected to say that 🙂
Today, 16th February 2012, I will stand beside one of my best friends and fellow Photographer, Nikhil, as our work goes on display at the National Gallery, Castellani House. It will be a month-long show, ending on March 17th, 2012. The Gallery will feature at least 20 pieces from each of us, and we are proud of our work. (he exhibition is open to the public from tomorrow through the 17th March)
Although in the beginnings of my photographic journey I seldom saw the call of monochrome photos, I seem to have changed quite a bit in that respect, the majority of my photographs on display are monochromatic. Many years ago I was well known by my friends for detesting heavy cloud coverage in the skies as I loved blue skies in my photographs, that has also changed, most of the landscape images on display show dramatic clouds and tumultuous skies.
I encourage anyone with a few minutes to spare to stop in at Castellani House and take a look, I’d hate to be known as the exhibition that no one bothered to go see 🙂
This week, I give you an image taken on a PhotoWalk with the Guyana Photographer’s Group, my more spectacular images were posted to the group (I hope to share them here later), this one I saved for use here, I was planning a post on the effective use of vignettes, but I don’t have that much to say on the subject yet, so here’s how I used a vignette in post-processing an image, and it’s a sepia (monochrome) image, and there are clouds in the sky, no true blue skies for me that day either 🙂
There are some weeks when you have a number of photographs, many that are technically better than others, yet you keep going back to one in particular which, although not the best composed, or the best exposed, nor the best focused image, it seems to demand from you that extra bit of attention.
This image is one such image for me, I had a few that were better, nicer, prettier, more appealing generally, but this one I liked more. The focus was not on the “obvious” subject, and for that reason I almost decided not to use it, but it appeals to me, it is an image that says something more than the others that I took this week.
If it speaks to you, then I am happy, if it doesn’t, then I fully understand 🙂
One of the “Four Great Inventions” of China was the invention of Paper, credited to a Court Eunuch named Ts’ai Lun sometime around 105BC, now more than two thousand years later, China still produces numerous paper-products including the subject of this week’s photograph.
Not only is the Invention of Paper one of the “Four Great Inventions of China”, but another of those four inventions is “Printing”, and coincidentally, the subject of today’s photograph combines them both. 🙂
As the Chinese New Year celebrations which began the Year of the (Sea) Dragon, came quite close to my daughter’s birthday, we had essentially a three day celebration for her, and we hung a few Chinese decorations, including these tiny Paper Lanterns that are lit by a string of “Fairy Lights”
May everyone have a fruitful and prosperous Year of the Dragon!
Often enough, I happen to see a beautiful sunset when I’m in the middle of a housing area or similar, with lots of utility posts and wires mangling the view, or a very plain area with nothing of interest other than the sky itself.
Last week, it happened again, and as I was driving out I decided to stop at the closest thing approximating to a “nice” scene, and get a shot including part of the sunset that day. 🙂
This week’s photo is not a great one or even a good one in my opinion, but as I began writing this post, some news was delivered to me and the photo somehow seemed… appropriate.
Revealed in shadow
Recently my friend (if she permits me to call her that) Reshi, wrote a post titled “Colour me Pretty”, and it had me thinking about many things, one was the effect of darker colours on a photo, the effect of shadows and light in photographs as Nikhil so masterly does them, and about the duality of emotions, and the different faces that we show people.
This post is dedicated to Godfrey Chin, many or most Guyanese will know him as the prolific writer of his “Nostalgias”, he numbered them. I came to know Godfrey only in recent years, and he has made an impact on me. He did so much in his life that I think someone will have to write a Nostalgia about him. I don’t know enough to do that to any degree of adequacy.
I know of his costumes and “floats” for the Mashramani Celebrations during his more youthful days, and I saw a bit of his style when he did some decorating for a party, and as I explained to someone, it was all about the look, it was a façade just to give the impression of the intent and not to be something that lasts forever, just for that party for those moments, yet his “Nostalgias” were vastly different, trying to scour the depths of his memories of his times in Guyana and write them down for others to share and reminisce, trying to capture those, maybe not for eternity, but at least that they live on for some time more.
Godfrey Chin was found this morning at his home in Guyana, he died sometime this weekend. Stabroek News called him a “Social History Icon” and a “Culture Enthusiast”, both descriptions are possibly very accurate, but I can attest to the second one better.
Why did I think that this photo was somehow appropriate for him? like the pointer-broom in the photo, Godfrey would sweep up and tidy up his memories and give us the sparkling finished product as a “Nostalgia”, like the light and shadows, he would help to reveal aspects of the past hidden to one or the other; if it is too bright you can’t see clearly, nor if it is too dark can you see at all.
Godfrey had asked me to give him some photos for an exhibition he was to do this Mashramani, they are on my desk, but now he will never see them, he was a fan of my work, maybe because we both thought of ourselves as family, I am thankful for his encouragement.
Godfrey came into our office during the Christmas Season and made his rounds, had a few “gaffs” and before he left, dived into his bag, took out some gold tinsel and proceeded to further decorate our Christmas Tree.
For Godfrey Chin, may his soul rest in peace, and if Heaven has a Parade we know what he’ll be doing. In Godfrey’s words “Ya think it easy?”
After two years of doing this, I think that this is what keeps me intrigued in photography, the weekly search for a photograph. While Nikhil has embarked upon his Daily Photography project this year (I hope he goes the full 366) I know my limitations, I won’t be trying that anytime soon.
I think that this image is somewhat appropriate to the year, the crazy Armageddon stories and to my photography. If you believe the Mayan Calendar theorists and many of the other Doomsday predictions regarding the year 2012, then you’re probably hoping, like myself, that I get some really good photographs this year! 🙂
This was taken on New Year’s Day, because of my interests in HDR, I thought that I would try another Black and White HDR, this one was taken at midday, I think the originals were 2ev apart.
It was a breezy day (forgot my tripod again, so this was hand-held for all three exposures), and very overcast, lots of clouds as you can see.
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